


Solving For X

by nothingeverlost



Series: Storybrooke High [8]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 08:23:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21491299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: “You could have surprised me without the hour of torture, love.”  He still hadn’t touched her and his nerves felt like they were screaming.
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Series: Storybrooke High [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/26801
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Solving For X

She walked into his last period class as if she was still a student. He hadn’t even known she was home. Last he’d heard she was coming Saturday, but it was Friday afternoon and she was sitting in the back of the room, whispering something to Graham Humbert. Graham was a second year senior; no the smartest lad but not stupid. There were rumors that his failing and repeated year had something to do with Regina, but Gold had never cared enough to ask Mal about the details. He didn’t doubt that she knew; Mal knew everything.

“Did you forget that you already graduated, Miss French?” A pop quiz was a good enough reason to walk up and down the rows, pausing in the back of the room. She was close enough to touch, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. If he touched her even a little he wouldn’t be able to restrain himself from wanting more.

“I’m home from college, Mr. Gold, and since none of my science classes are quite as stimulating as yours always are I thought I would sit in for a lesson. If that’s not a problem, of course. I don’t want to cause any trouble.” Her blue eyes were wide with sincerity, but he could see the mischief lurking. His little minx was teasing him.

“As long as you don’t interrupt my class you can stay. There might even be a thing or two for you to learn still.” He directed the rest of the class to their quiz, giving them fifteen minutes to answer the questions. The trouble want that it gave him fifteen minutes with little to do but to attempt to discreetly look at Belle. He’d seen her via Skype, and spoken to her via the phone, but it had been close to three months since she’d left for college.

She was even more beautiful, if possible, than she’d been in the summer.

“You won’t hear a peep from me, Mr. Gold. I promise.” She didn’t have a quiz in front of her, but as promised Belle was quiet during the quiz. Gold wasn’t surprised when she pulled a book out from her bag and spent her time reading. She’d spent hours at his house during the summer, curled up on the couch or laying in the hammock, just reading. Sometimes they would barely talk, the only sound the turning of the pages as they read, their legs twined together.

Belle’s face was so full of expression as she read. She never hid anything, his girl. He didn’t have the first idea what she was reading, the cover hidden from his view, but the protagonist was in peril of some sort, judging from the inaudible gasp. A moment later she was chewing her lower lip in concern. He wished that he could soothe her lip with the pad of his thumb. He wished he could kiss the frown line between her eyebrows. He wished he could touch her. Three months without so much as a fingertip on her skin, and he had to be in the same room with her for an hour without touching.

“Pencils down and quizzes to the front, please. We’ll be resuming yesterday’s experiment. Some of you, considering the results I witnessed yesterday, might consider simply starting from the beginning.” There were an odd number of students in the class. Usually Graham opted to be the odd man out, unsurprisingly. Today he and Belle paired up without seeming to discuss it. They worked well together, Belle taking notes in her neat handwriting, Graham handling the beakers with more confidence than usual. It was, he thought, the first time he’d seen Graham smile in his class.

Finally class was over, his students eager to leave but not nearly as eager as he was to have them gone. Graham was the last one to leave, spending a few minutes in quiet discussion with Belle. She gave him a piece of paper before he left, and muttered something about ‘call Emma.’. He waited to a count of five before speaking. “You’re early.”

“I’ve been planning this for a week but I didn’t want to say anything in case Ruby couldn’t get away as soon as she thought.” She slipped the book she’d been reading earlier into her bag. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“You could have surprised me without the hour of torture, love.” He still hadn’t touched her and his nerves felt like they were screaming.

“What, you mean spending an hour in a classroom looking but not being allowed to touch? I can’t imagine what that feels like.” His little minx grinned at him, but she also moved closer. Close enough. He touched her jaw bone with his fingertips like a blind man reading the message that would save him. He licked his lips. He also allowed himself to stare, which he’d been avoiding for the last hour.

“I don’t think that skirt meets the requirements of the dress code, Miss French.” It was denim and even standing it didn’t hit her mid thigh. He couldn’t stop staring at her legs.

“It’s a good thing I’m no longer a student here, Mr. Gold. No one cares how short my skirts are in college.” She moved a step closer, stopping just shy of touching him. She was biting her lip but this time rather than concern he could see the laughter she was holding in.

“The fuck they don’t,” he growled. Three months since he’d kissed her and he couldn’t wait even a moment longer to taste her again. He pulled her as close as he could, feeling the weight of her pressing against him. In the words of the romance novels she sometimes borrowed from Ruby, not that he’d ever picked them up out of curiosity, he ravaged her mouth.

“Now that’s what I call a homecoming.” Her breath was warm against his skin, her comment punctuated by a kiss against the side of his neck just beneath his beard.

“Give me two minutes to make sure no one has left any Bunsen burners on and lock up, and I’ll show you real homecoming.” For three months he’d been replaying memories of her in his house, sitting at the table, napping on his sofa, sharing his bed. He wanted to see her there for real.

“This is almost exactly where I stood the first time I kissed you.” She didn’t move, didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave.

“That’s not something I could ever forget.” He could still remember the shock, the battle to not react, and the moment instinct had taken over and he’d kissed her back. The selfishness of wanting her even when he knew it was wrong. He remembered, too, the weeks afterwards but today was not a day to think about that.

“Sometimes I fantasize about what would have happened if we hadn’t stopped at a kiss.” The way her hips wiggled a little might have been an accident, but the way she licked his skin just over his pulse point wasn’t.

“We’re in my classroom, Belle. In public.” He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t had similar fantasies. 

“School is out of the day, Nick, and I’m not a student anymore.” In the ridiculous shoes she was wearing, which genuinely worried him because his love was something of a klutz, she was only a couple of inches shorter than him. Close enough to whisper in his ear. “I could lock the door if it made you more interested.”

“Being interested isn’t a problem, love.” He was glad of his briefcase and the fact that he could carry it in front of him when he left his classroom.

“It’s good to know. Three months is a long time.” She was still smiling at him but it wasn’t quite as bright.

“I’d wait a hell of a lot longer than three months for you.” He kissed each corner of her mouth gently, then the tip of her nose. She was grinning up at him when he pulled back. “I’m really grateful for phones, though. I love getting to hear about your day.”

“I love hearing your voice too. Did I ever mention that I recorded a couple of your classes?” Her thumb made small circles on the side of his neck as she spoke. He found it distracting.

“You did?” He didn’t want to be in the classroom. He wanted to be gone, to go home and enjoy as much of the week as Belle could spend with him.

“I told myself at the time it was because I needed clarification on colligative properties but everytime I replay it I forget the words. I get distracted by your voice, and start thinking about what it would be like to be alone in the classroom while you were lecturing. I think about your hand writing equations on the board with a dry erase marker and the way you sometimes stick the pen cap in your mouth when you’re writing. You can’t suck a pen cap in class without me thinking about sucking things too, Nick. I miss half of what you’re saying imagining that I’ve hidden under your desk and unzipped…”

“We can’t…”

“Can’t we?” She touched his hand, pressing something into his palm. Instinctively he grasped it. He looked down to find himself holding a condom the same moment he heard the lock on the door click. She turned off the lights as well; at three in the afternoon he could still see her clearly.

“You planned this.” Except for the first time they hadn’t so much as kissed in his classroom. 

“I told you I wanted to surprise you.” Instead of returning to him she headed for the front of the room, uncapping one of the pens. With clear deliberation she stuck the cap in her mouth. On the board in her neat hand she wrote C8H11NO2+C10H12N2O+C43H66N12O12S2+x = B+N.

“Dopamine, Serotonin, and Oxytocin? Are we a sum of our chemistry?” That damn pen top in her mouth was too distracting. Minx.

“Don’t forget the x, Nick. The variable always matters.” She recapped the pen, but before returning it to the railing she drew almost the whole damn thing into her mouth. He was never going to be able to write in class without thinking of her. It was going to make teaching very hard.

“So how do we solve for x?” He leaned against the whiteboard with his left hand to keep himself balanced, and looked at the only part of the equation that mattered to him. Her eyes sparkled even in the dimmer light.

“We figured that one out months ago, sweetheart.” She pressed gently against his right shoulder until he turned, finding his back to the whiteboard. He couldn’t find it in him to protest when he felt her fingers on his zipper. A moment later she was kneeling before him, her mouth taking him in the same way she’d teased him with the pen. He was grateful that his room had no windows, only the door that was on the same wall as the whiteboard. No one could see them. He lasted almost a minute before he held out a hand for her, encouraging her to stand up. 

“Tell me what else you thought about.” It was his turn; the skirt had the advantage of being able to reach under easily and stroke the very damp underwear he found there. “Tell me how you thought about me touching you.”

“The desk. I was so nervous the first time I kissed you I leaned against it. Sometimes I think about you lifting me up and sitting on the edge and kissing you again. And wrapping my legs around you and feeling you everywhere.” She only had to take one step backwards before running into the corner of his desk.

“Belle.” He couldn’t say much else as he reached under her skirt again and hooked his thumbs through her underwear, pushing them down. He had a brief moment of thinking that they’d better remember to pick them up before they left or Leroy was going to give him some strange looks when they met. At least the custodian hated Regina so that wouldn’t be an issue. Belle’s hands were on his shoulder and all thoughts of her underwear were gone once he helped her onto the desk. It was the perfect height. He kissed her before opening the condom packet. She’d been on the pill for six months but he didn’t want to risk anything; they’d only forgotten the extra protection a couple of times.

“Please, Nick.” Her legs were spread open, but he used his fingers first, two of them curled inside of her, making her moan. 

“Like this, love? Is this how you imagined it?” Over her shoulder he could see the rows of desks. The center of the second row had been her seat for two years; he could almost see her there, chewing on her lower lip. 

“Better. It’s always better when it’s real and I’m with you.” She linked her fingers together behind his neck, pulling him closer. Kissing him like she never planned to stop, like breathing didn’t matter. When he slid into her she wrapped her legs around him as well. He could feel her warmth but not enough of her skin; they would have to wait until they got home for that. Later he would take his time and touch every bit of her, hold her while she slept, and memorize every moment to last him until Christmas. Now, though, he would celebrate the fact that she was really here and in his arms.

“Welcome home, Belle.”


End file.
